The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [44]
Deep Space 9’s chief of operations routed the data to the bridge’s tactical station. Daniels recalibrated, his hands flying over his console.
“Fire,” Picard ordered.
Again the station merely glimmered under the blasts. The shields held.
“It’s not working,” Daniels said, stating the obvious.
“Keep remodulating the frequency along its present curve,” O’Brien said with calm confidence. ” Eventually you’ll find the right one.”
Picard swore under his breath. The Tulwar and Scimitar, in spite of brilliantly executed evasive maneuvers, were taking heavy fire. The small cruisers couldn’t hold off the Dominion forces much longer.
Again the Enterprise was strafed by Jem’Hadar phased polaron beams. The lights on the bridge dimmed, the auxiliary power kicked in.
“Damage on Decks Four, Eleven, and Twelve,” Daniels said. “Shields down to twenty percent.”
Picard realized they couldn’t win this battle. With the station shields holding, the task force would have to withdraw, rethink their strategy for boarding Sentok Nor, and return to try again.
“Evasive maneuvers. Continue to target weapons arrays and fire at will. Keep us within transporter range.” Picard hoped to buy time for the light cruisers to retreat with him. The helm responded sluggishly into a ninety-degree turn.
Immediately, collision alarms blared throughout the ship. Picard leaped to his feet and stared at the viewscreen.
Two Jem’Hadar battle cruisers appeared in their path, blocking their retreat.
Without bothering to announce himself, Gul Lemec stormed into Luaran’s office on Sentok Nor. “The resistance is up to something.”
The Vorta’s mouth twitched in annoyance. “You’re making too much of one prisoner’s death.”
Lemec spoke through gritted teeth. “I hadn’t finished interrogating him.” The gul slammed a primitive blow dart onto Luaran’s desk. “This weapon killed him before he talked. I’m telling you, there’s a conspiracy among the Betazoids. They’re all supporting the resistance. We must crack down.”
“Thus far, what you call cracking down has only produced more resistance,” Luaran noted.
Lemec opened his mouth to protest, but a glinn marched through Luaran’s open door. “We’ve gone to battle alert, sir.”
“Status?” Lemec asked.
“Sensors have picked up four Federation warp signatures in this sector.”
Alarms sounded. The gul followed the glinn from Luaran’s office down to Level One, the command center of the station. In the sunken interface system which his men had nicknamed “the pit,” Cardassians monitored every function on the station from engineering to ketracel-white processing, if the blasted Betazoid-assembled equipment was functioning as it should.
Lemec’s gaze focused on the large display screen over the pit where the Federation warp signatures presented green trails of light. Dominion forces were yellow, outnumbering the enemy almost three to one, if he counted the approaching Jem’Hadar battle cruisers.
“Enemy ships are dropping out of warp,” the glinn announced in surprise.
“Raise shields,” Lemec ordered.
“Shields up, sir, but the station’s weapons are still off-line.”
The Vorta had followed them to the operations center and stared at the screen. “Are we in danger?”
Lemec shook his head. “With twelve ships, even without the defensive capabilities of Sentok Nor, we are the superior force. They have four lone ships.”
“The Founders will not be pleased if our work is interrupted,” the Vorta said, her voice trembling. The gul didn’t respond, and she pressed him. “You don’t anticipate a problem?”
“Nothing our forces can’t handle.”
The Federation ships blasted out of warp, opening fire at once. Within moments, two Cardassian cruisers and a Jem’Hadar attack ship were destroyed in a spectacular display of fire.
“The odds in our favor have suddenly decreased,” the Vorta noted with irony.
“What’s going on?” Dr. Moset asked as he strolled into the operations center. “Why have our ships been destroyed?”
Civilians didn’t belong in the middle of the war, and the